October 28, 2012 - 2:41pm
Whole Grain Spelt Cinnamon Raisin Braed Won't Rise
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I put together P. Reinhart's Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread recipe using 100% Whole-grain home-milled Spelt. I also opted for using yogurt in the soaker and the biga. Otyherwise all ingredients were weighed.
The end result was a fantastic tasting bread (maybe a tad salty), the flavour was unprecendented in my world. The only downside was the density. It was heavy and had the texture of dry banana bread. I'm not sure the dough rose to any extent.
I will try it with milk next time and wonder if reducing the salt or increasing the yeast will help.
Any suggestions will be gratefully appreciated, I would like to shorten the learning curve with spelt as much as possible.
Happy breading!
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Hi, Dave12! and welcome on board!
I'd say none of what you mentioned would rectify the density problem. Spelt flour ferments faster than wheat flour, and so will over proof before you know it. The proofing times in Peter's book are for wheat doughs, and adjustments must be made when using other flours. To adjust, reduce proofing time by 30% at least, so if your recipe calls for an hour of bulk fermentation, expect 45 minutes for spelt, and so on. Another reason why your bread is dense, is that you have to adjust water quantity in the dough, as spelt absorbs less water than wheat. A 70% hydration whole wheat dough is medium loose, while a 70% hydration whole spelt is very loose, which makes it ferment even faster.
Try reducing hydration, and fermentation time, while keeping other factors constant.
khalid
Thank you for the reply.
I will try these suggestions this weekend and post the results and maybe a picture if I can figure out how to do that.
Dave12
I reduced the water percedntages to .7 of those recomended in P Reinharts recipe and got zeroe rise (at least none detected to my eye). I am using 100% whole grain home milled spelt flour. In the end I left the loaves to rise foer close to 1.5 hours with no change.
In the name of "tinkery", I milled some more spelt and sifted all the fibres out of it (bran/germ), then assembled a Whole Wheat Hearth Bread loaf as per P Reinharts instructions, to the letter. I was pleased that this loaf turned out great with outstanding flavour and better (chewier) texture, The bubles where what I hoped for.
Un fortunately, I was so excited that the bread was a success I failed to photograph. As for the Cinnamon Raisin loaf ... I did not want to photograph and will be moving on in my breading adventure and will return at another time.
Thank you for your input. It gave me hope and a desire to move along.
Happy Breading
Hi, Dave
It could be either one of the following:
- You killed the yeasts by either using hot water, chlorinated tap water, or the yeast's useability has expired.
Or
- It may be that the spelt was not fermentable in the existance of cinammon.
I'm leaning toward the cinammon variable as the water, yeast and spelt is the same as I have been using for other breads and having successes.
Thank you for your input, and I will post any further developements on this loaf. I have another cinammon raisin bread on the go now using 100% Winter Hard Red Wheat. I am hoping for great things.
Dave